THE BLACK TRUTH
SPRING 2018
CONTENTS 2-3 Empire 4-5 jairi smith 6-7 queen latifah 8-9 Dasani & Starbucks 10 Black-ish
who is jairi smith?
“We’re told that we’ll never amount to anything and our race is disgraceful. Both African American men and women have been underpaid for decades. I’ve been denied scholarships, and I’ve even been turned down for jobs all because of my race,” said Jayla Wright.
As African Americans it’s no secret we’ve been abused both mentally and physically. We scream Black Lives Matter in hopes of seeing change with the recent epidemic of police brutality. But people never seem to stop and ask themselves, what is it truly like being black?
“ Me personally I love being black, people aspire to be us and it’s amusing to watch them in the process,” said Tamia Hardison.
“ We’re still looked down upon, racism still exists. People claim that we can’t use the race card anymore, but personally I feel that we have every right to after all we’ve been through as a culture,” Hardison said.
So how do we fix if not eradicate racism? It starts with speaking out. As African American we need to voice our opinions and speak out on things we believe in. We shall no longer be a part of watching things go on and being silent about the situation.
“ I remember I was in my science class and I was talking right. So, my teacher had asked me why do I have to talk so loudly. I responded with because we’ve been silenced for so long,” said Shawn Gracden.
Bold is defined as showing or requiring a fearless daring spirit. Society has shown there’s no room for people who have shy or timid personalities. African Americans have been timid in the past due to certain situations because we’ve been afraid of the consequences. We should no longer go about life being timid. If we become bold, there will be more opportunities for us out there as well as being able to voice our opinion and get our point across.
“ Most people think I’m rude and blunt just based off of how I come off to people. I’m not doing this intentionally, I’m honestly just tired of my point not getting across to people. Even when my point is made people usually take offense to it just because of where I’m from,” said Wright.
We always use that slogan, “ Only If You Walked a Mile in My Shoes” but as a society we all need to realize that everyone has different perspectives and we all come from differ ent backgrounds. If we became more understanding, there would be less police brutality and hostility between African Americans and the police, as well as other races.
“At the end of the day I want people to know that black’s intentions are not for us to come off as being rude and flamboyant. It’s simply that we’ve been silenced for so long and we’ve just finally begun to speak out, said Gracden.
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